The City Scoop! ~ Front Page ~ April 17, 2009
Behind the | In The ScoopWell, it is Monday, and over the weekend I bought myself a deviant little devil bat. A cute little fellow, all chubby with a little bit of hair, horns and a snarling grin. I'm not sure what I will call him yet, so I will wait to see what his personality is like. In the mean time, I am allowing him to sit in the window and drool over the arachnoids that are posted about the court yard. I sit at my desk with my usual coffee and swivel around in my chair to peer out the window with my new little buddy. It is such a gloomy day; I think an outing is in order. So I pack up my Scirocco laptop and head outside with my little buddy flapping his tiny wings as he tries to keep his chubby little body up with my pace. We flew together over the Grandville walls, my pal hanging onto my thigh high boots with his paws. He was just too tiny and chubby to fly fast enough, so he latched on for a free ride. We landed at the edge of the pond where my little pal saw something beneath the surface of the water. So he fluttered above the water to get a better view, and when it moved, he freaked out and hid behind me. It is just Cora lurking beneath the surface of the pond. She is very young and timid, but came out of the water just long enough to let my little demon see her and to smile at me. Then she retreated back into the depths of the pond. After getting all settled, I open up my laptop and begin my search for my next project. After spending a bit of time reading the boardsters' chattering, I find Electagonist's images. Very nice work! I continue to sort through all the different images and really like what I see! I say with excitement to my new little pal who is watching Cora, "Come on buddy! We have a scoop waiting to be scooped! We pack up and fly back to the office where I promptly draft a letter to send off to Electagonist. "G'day, Electagonist, My name is VexXxa and am the Art Correspondent for the City Scoop. I was looking at some of the postings you have on the boards and I saw some really nice work you have done. I would really enjoy featuring you in one of my articles. If you are interested, please let me know and we can meet up at Pocket D. Ciao for now. ~*~VexXxa~*~" I awoke to a windy and rainy day, which is great since I enjoy this yucky weather! I bundle myself up, and my deviant devil, and head to the office. We enjoy the wild weather and the rough ferry ride as we get closer to docking in Grandville. We make it into the office right when the skies opened up with a roar of thunder and a flash of brilliant light which was accompanied by a down pour of rain. The wind whipping everything all about. I grab the mail that had come in early, for some strange reason, and I find a letter from Electagonist. I open it up right away and read it as I stand by my window listening to the rain as it taps on my window and the wind bellowing as it swoops by. As I read the letter, Electagonist says: "VexXxa, I am so sorry. But I will not be able to meet you any time soon. My schedule is incredibly tight this month. However, I have enclosed some images and some info about me that may be of some help. I hope you understand. If you would like to post pone and meet up at a later time, please let me know. I am sure my schedule will have calmed down by then. Electagonist" Electagonist's personal favorite that he created is http://electagonist.deviantart.com/a...tter-108475208 ">Blight Matter. However; he says that it is not one of his best pictures. He also created Azazel005 a few years ago for his brother, who just happens to be a 36 month veteran. His favorite artists are Jim Lee, Michael Turner and Marc Sylvestri which have influenced his comic book style pieces. Much of his work can be seen at http://electagonist.deviantart.com/ and his Blog. Electagonist has a couple of pieces that he is working on and has a couple of commissions that he will be working on in the near future and is interested in doing more commissioned pieces for anyone who may be interested. Drunken Avenger is the only one he currently has available to view at the moment. There are so many questions that I would love to ask Electagonist had we been able to meet in person. Perhaps I will bump into him sometime in the future and will be able to pick his brain then. And with my article completed, my little deviant devil and I head home to enjoy more of this nasty weather from the comforts of our home. "Bring me your visions" - VexXxa |
Fan Fiction SpotlightYou |
Hello fellow Architects! My name is Bubbawheat and this week I'll be taking
another look into the mission architect system with a brand new mission. I was
going to save this for next week, but what can I say, inspiration struck so
here I am.
Now, I know that the current Architect system doesn't allow for branching
dialog, but I decided to try my hand seeing what I could do with one of the
age-old superhero stories: having to choose between saving the girl or saving
the best friend (or some similar choice). Of course, just like last time, I
first had to pick a contact; I went with a scientist type, as if it's some type
of study.
Now for my first run through, I like to stick to the mechanics, and leave the
flavor for later. And also because I'm not quite sure what kind of flavor I'm
going to give to this mission just yet. I'll skip the map for right now and
come back to it to make sure I pick a map with enough spawn points for what I
decide to use. So now onto the mission goals. I start out with two different
collection objects, named simply enough choice 1 and choice 2. Next, I move
onto two bosses, boss for choice 1 and boss for choice 2. In addition, for
something a little different, two destructible objects, object for choice 1 and
object for choice 2. Now in order to make this work the way I hope, I make all
three of the "choice 1" goals required. The idea is that if you go with choice
1 all the way, you complete the mission and get the "success" dialog, but if
you go with choice 2 all the way, you don't have enough time to complete the
mission and get the "failure" dialog. Which reminds me; I must put a time limit
on the mission. Let's say, 15 minutes for starters.
Going back now for my first round of error checking, I realize I haven't picked
an enemy group yet. I personally prefer to use an enemy group that's available
from 1-54 for the widest selection of players. I go with Arachnos. Since I
haven't seen all the unique maps, I pick the Skulls map. With no errors left, I
find a helper teammate for more objective testing and give it a run through
with my 38 fire/fire brute. We run into a few problems with the Night Widows at
this level, and have a few deaths, but have enough time to make it through all
six objectives within the 15 minutes.
Now it's time to flesh things out a little bit. I have a stroke of inspiration
and change the more or less random goals to a set of eight rescues. Of course
it has to be rescues! That fits perfectly with my original idea. As for who to
rescue, how about some signature heroes and villains? That allows me a good
opportunity to flesh out the text now. The choice: Hero or Villain. My mission
text tells you that your first choice is between Back Alley Brawler and Black
Scorpion. I add in 6 other heroes and villains, all chained off of each other.
When the mission starts up, there are only two rescues, and then each rescue
spawns another one until you reach the end of the chain. Like before, I choose
one group to make required so I can split up the mission complete text between
success and failure. I also make all of the nav text on the required rescues to
display just "choose wisely" so as not to give away which one is tied to
success. Because of this, I add the name of the next victim into the dialog of
the rescuees, so that the player isn't lost.
Now, as this is not a perfect system, I do have to add in a couple caveats. For
the success dialog, I write the text as if the player chose all of one side,
but I also add in the possibility that they had enough time to save everyone.
On the flipside, for the failure dialog, I write the text as if they chose all
of the other side, but I also add the possibility that they just didn't save
enough people in the time limit.
After testing another time, I make a couple more final changes. I go with an
outdoor map in order for the player to be able to more easily avoid unnecessary
spawns and just pick out the rescues. I also change Arachnos into Paragon
Police, which is a group that fewer people, especially heroes, get to fight. I
also drop the timer to 10 minutes. All in all, it ends up working pretty well.
So, there's how it went with mission number 2: Choices. All in all I'm pretty
happy with it, and if you want to go check it out for yourself, take a look at
arc # 2711: Exploring the Architect #2: Choices.
Your
PvPEC Reps!
Protector Rep:
@Vorac
Greetings Programs!
My name is Vorac, and I'm a PvPEC Rep on the Protector Server.
Some of you may know me from the forums, although I don't post that often, some
might know me from Protector. But, wherever I may be, City of Heroes/Villains
is my home.
I am here today as a fellow player, gamer and a representative of the PvPEC and
I would like talk to everyone about why I joined the PvPEC, how I started
PvP'ng in CoH/V, and a little history of my PvP origins.
In the beginning, there was Pong. I started playing games back at the ripe age
of 5. The year was 1976 and my Parents brought home an Odyssey system. My
Brothers and I spent more time fighting about who was gonna play who than
actually playing the game. The love and excitement of that game would continue
throughout the years... Combat, Disks of Tron, Punch Out, Street Fighter,
Mortal Kombat, Virtual Fighter...the adrenaline, the fun, the friendly (and not
so friendly) rivalries, the always evolving technology and method of PvP in all
its forms, has kept me gaming for all these years.
In 2000, I got a job that every gamer dreams of: Working in a LAN room. In
essence, being paid to play video games! For the 6 months that I was employed
there, I spent an average of 10 hours a day playing CS and Starcraft. Needless
to say, I was hooked on computer gaming. For the next five years I stuck with
FPS's almost exclusively, HL(2), CoD, Halo, Serious Sam, CS(CS:S), TF. Until
one day watching Screensavers and they had this little review of this game
called City of Heroes....
June '05 I picked up a trial for CoH. Since then I have only been out of the
game for about 2 weeks. One week for a fried Mobo, and about another week or so
on vacations ('08 Hero Con and '07 SJ Meet n Greet)
I first started PvP'ng when CoV came out. My SG would all go storming into
Warburg, hell-bent on smashing everything in our way. (Well, that was the
idea... didn't always go our way.) Our many defeats never deterred us. Since
this form of PvP was all new to me, it was frustrating and fun learning the
system. I spent the next several months hanging out in zones, trying out
different toons, trying to find one that I enjoyed in PvE as well as PvP. That
ended up being my SS/Nrg Brute. I know, lol/nrg, but he does ok and is fun to
play, to me that is the important part to remember about this game... Have Fun!
Which I forget sometimes, but I'll get into that in a few.
Once the level cap went up to 50 for Villains, I took some time away from PvP to
get a couple Vill's and a couple Heroes up to 50. By then, the SG that I was in
started to get into Base Raids. The Raids were mostly just for fun between
Coalitions. But there were a few times when things got heated, due mostly to
spawn camping. I used to get so frustrated from that and facing more organized
teams that would just plow through us. I was taking the game personally, losing
my cool, and just plain forgot that this game is supposed to be fun. So, once
again I decided to take a short break from PvP.
After about a month off, I started getting back into Base raiding as well as
Arena. Joining up with Warface and the F.U.S.I.O.N. VG on my Ice/Rad Corruptor,
I really started having fun once again with PvP. Total Hate was running
Thursday Night Fights at the time on Protector. He kept me coming back week
after week to have a little fun, as in he would send me tell after tell until I
would relent and show up for the fights So, this went on for a while, until one
Thursday I had a real bad day at work and figured that I would blow off a
little steam on some Arena fights. Well, nothing went right for me that night.
Couldn't get a combo off, everything that I tried backfired in my face. I had
so much frustration and rage built up that I punched my brand new, $350
monitor. The next morning, I looked at my monitor and figured it was time for
another break.
It was quite a while before I got back into PvP. But this time I figured that I
would get back into it a little slower. I started by going to the lvl 4 fight
nights that Frog was running for a while. It was a fun way to get back into
PvP'ng. Then Kyo-Chan took over the fight nights and she eventually started up
Thursday Night Fights again. I went to as many of these as I could. If I
started to get angry at the game or just frustrated, I would call it a night. I
just wanted to keep a positive attitude and enjoy PvP once again. So, I kept
going and helped Kyo out whenever she needed it. Kyo eventually asked if I
would like to join the PvPEC and help run events on Protector.
So, here we are today. I have been a PvPEC rep for 3 months now. Once again I am
having fun with PvP and hope to keep it that way. As a rep, I am going to try
to run events that are fun and challenging for both the new and veteran
PvP'ers. My main goal is to help keep PvP fun for everyone and hopefully to
keep people from making the same mistakes that I have made.
Now, I am not the greatest PvP'er in the game. In fact, I would get laughed off
of the Test PvP League. But I have my moments, and have a decent understanding
of the PvP system. So, if you have any questions about PvP or wondering about
events that we are running, feel free to send me a /tell in game (@Vorac). If I
am unable to help, then I can point you in the right direction to get you the
answers that you need. All of the PvPEC reps are here to help.
In the end, it all comes down to having fun in the game that you love. If you
ever start getting frustrated or angry, go ahead and step away from the
keyboard, whether it's for 10 minutes or a couple days. It's not worth a new
Monitor and some cracked knuckles.
Good Luck and Have Fun!
Vorac
|
"His mama and papa had always been touched by the childlike nature of his eyes.
His gaze was a comfort to them . But not at the end. They lived long enough to
see their son look down upon their contaminated bodies with not the two blue
eyes of his birth, but with the six cold abominations that had usurped them.
They died with horrific pain in their bodies, but it is fair to say the pain in
their hearts actually killed them. Panic eventually overwhelmed the boy, and he
fled everything he had ever known."
You look back to the figure. Your mind fills in the blanks between the scared
innocent who fled the only home he had ever known, and the mutated man
condemned by innocence to merely exist for others amusement in the very world
that made him a freak. You want to do something.
A plume of cigarette smoke escapes your mouth as you concentrate. "Laissez-moi
avoir un souffle de cela," the left mouth speaks.You look back to the figure.
The right mouth is...giggling?
"He says "Let me have a puff of that," the tiny mouth laughs.
Surprising yourself, you place the cigarette in the left mouth, which begins to
inhale. You remove the butt, the mouth blows a tiny ring. Normal.
It comes to you suddenly. A smile crosses your lips as you look around the tent,
finding the second exit you hoped was there. You climb up on the platform,
facing the tall mutant.
"Do you want to go home?" you ask quickly. There is a pause as the six eyes
consider you once more.
"Maison? Oui." he replies slowly, the voice rumbling out of the deformed mouth
like bubbles from swamp mud.
You take his massive hand, and begin to lead him toward the neglected tent flap
opposite the door you entered. You turn, looking up at his face. You see trust,
an innocent belief that kindness means safety. As the gloom of the tent yields
to dusk outside, you purpose not to be the next one to betray him.
"We have to make a stop at a place called Paragon City. But I promise, I will
get you home one day," you offer.
Everyone deserves a chance to be normal.
The runner up was Angel Red, with her story The Arrival. She won 200 Brain Storm
Ideas. Here is her story:
The Arrival
I squinted my eyes against the brightness of the day, the left remained a
glaring red as it filtered through my closed eyelid, the right partially
shielded by the fact that my face was in the dirt. A small movement of my head
produced a loose, gritty feeling, suggesting that what I was laying in was
actually sand. The intense heat that burned my arms when I moved them merely
confirmed it. The intense heat contrasted sharply with the coolness of the
waves gently lapping at my legs. Slowly, I drew my hands back through the sand,
careful to keep them where my arms had kept it cool. Wincing as the creases and
folds of my back and shoulders exploded in flames before I could push off the
sand and once again drop my arms. Exactly how long had I been laying there?
"Look what the tide washed in boys." I froze at the harsh voice and the laughed
responses that held no humor.
I raised my head slowly, looking up, and realized that I must still be asleep as
I looked up at the nightmare before me. Half a dozen men stood there looking
down at me, at least, they may have started their lives as men, the myriad of
electrical and mechanical devices protruding from their bodies was obviously
their first step in erasing their humanity, visibly anyway. Recognizing the
lack of anything remotely human behind their eyes, those that still had them, I
felt fear closing off my throat, stifling any screams when a flash of red and
white behind them caught my attention. What else could possible happen?
Those nightmarish freaks barely registered as two figures in red and white
appeared behind my attackers, blasts of energy shooting from their hands,
sending those before them flying. One of them looked down at me, his left arm
flinging out as he pointed back in the direction they had appeared. "Run for
the station!" He shouted down at me. But as I stood, and arc of energy struck
him, sending him crashing to the beach.
"Run!" His partner screamed as she sent another blast into the crowd, buying her
partner time to get to his feet. I spun on my knees ready to make a dash
towards the retaining wall, when I came face-to-face with one of my attackers,
and although he appeared to have fewer modifications than the others, his
intent was no less obvious. As if time itself slowed, I watched as his arm
began to raise, the muzzle of the gun in his hand tracked up until I was
looking down its barrel. Bringing my hands up in a feeble attempt to fend off
the attack, streaks of red and orange circled my foe as well as myself. He
seemed to visible sag and I felt somehow energized. A quick glance over my
shoulder showed the same lights fade from around my rescuers.
I half expected them to decide that I was just as much a threat and turn their
attention to me, or worse, let these freaks finish what they started. To my
surprise, grins split both their faces and their attacks on the three attackers
left standing increased. The one who had focused his attention on me turned and
ran, leaving his cohorts to fend for themselves. Again and again I tried to
repeat what whatever it was I had done, without success. As the one closest to
me appeared to draw his last breath, it happened again.
Like a pulling sensation, it was as if I were drawing something into myself from
my foe, and sharing it with those who fought for me. He went down and my two
rescuers focused their undivided attention on the last foe standing. Their
attacks hit him simultaneously, launching him out into the water. Other than
the rippling of the waves, there was no further motion from him. My rescuers
turned to me, frazzled, spent, and a bit singed around the edges, but
triumphant in their own success in prevailing against two to one odds.
"Come." He said, his blue eyes locking on me. "We'll escort you to safety." And
he clasped his hand on my shoulder. The instant he touched my skin, searing
pain forced me down and away from his hand, nausea roiling my stomach at the
sudden intensity of it.
"Have you been injured?" Concern filled his voice as I sucked in great sobbing
breaths, and as I started to fall to my knees, he grabbed a hold of my arm to
keep me upright. "Not just yet. We've got to get you out of here, it doesn't
take long for others to crawl out of the sewers and take their place." With a
toss of his head, he indicated the bodies strewn about the beach. "Besides, we
need to get you healed. It seems that you've been out here for quite some
time." He and his partner guided me up and over the retaining wall, their hands
placed with care to avoid any unnecessary contact with the severe sunburn. Less
than a block away, I saw the train platform.
"What is your name?" He asked. It was an innocent enough question, and should
have been fairly easy to answer.
"I..." And I stopped dead in my tracks, the heat pouring off my skin and the
searing pain dropped to the background as I realized that I didn't know. "I..."
I looked around with the realization that I had no clue as to where I was, and
no recollection as to who I was.
My two defenders looked at one another, then steered me across the street to the
train plaza. Had I not been so stunned I might have noticed others dressed in
all manners of outfits, running, leaping, and flying about, some looking far
scarier than those who had just been defeated. "I must say, it was fortunate
for us that your Defender abilities chose to surface when they did." The woman
in red and white said then looked at her partner. "It looks as if we have a
guardian angel, Longbowman Price." She smiled at her partner, Price, then at
me.
"A rather red one at the moment." And they both laughed, raising my own mood for
the moment. "Let's say we get you some help, then take you to someone who can
help you on your journey, our reddened Angel."
I stood there for a moment and tossed the name around in my head. Angel Red.
Yes, I think will do nicely.
Vol. 2, Issue 42
April 17th, 2009
The City Scoop a publication for Supers by Supers!
Read the latest publication and then join in on the community discussion!
If you have concerns regarding the content of the Scoop please direct your comments via PM to Ex Libris.
If you would like to do a feature article, or join "The City Scoop" team please PM Snow_Globe.
If you would like to place a classified ad or have an event covered, contact Cende, EnnVee, or Lemur Lad.
If you need some "Advice" contact Lady_Athyna, would like to "Ask The X" contact LiquidX, or need help with fashion, "Ask Arbiter Fabulous."
If you have a base you would like featured, please contact EnnVee.
Finally if you have a Recipe you would like included please contact Barron_.
The City Scoop
Vol. 2, Issue 42
April 17th, 2009
This Issue:
Ex Libris Stepping Down
Behind the Walls
In The Scoop
Fan Fiction Spotlight
Exploring the Architect #2: Choices
Your PvPEC Reps!
Protector PERC: Tell Me a Story!
Comic: The Hecktic Life
Masthead
Upcoming Events:
April 18
PERC's
The Amazing Race: The Dark Side (Additional
thread)
Server: Justice
Date: Saturday, April 18th
Time: 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Pacific
Host: Philly_girl
Pre-Deployment
Party for Electrosys
Server: Guardian
Date: Saturday, April 18th
Time: See thread for evolving event details.
Host: VVamphyri
PvPEC
Feature: Deadly Duo
Server: Victory
Date: Saturday, April 18th
Time: 8:00 pm Eastern / 5:00 pm Pacific
Host: The_Masque
UltraTroll
Team Saturday SF/Trial
Server: Triumph
Date: Saturday, April 18th
Time: 3:00 pm Eastern / 12:00 pm Pacific
Host: UltraTroll
April 19
PERC
Presents Champion Spring Fling!
Server: Champion
Date: Sunday, April 19th
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern / 4:00 pm Pacific
Host: Dazz_Marvelous
April 25
PvPEC: Deadly Duo
Server: Protector
Date: Saturday, April 25th
Time: 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Pacific
Host: @Kyo-chan
April 26
PvPEC:
Justice Swiss Draw
Server: Justice
Date: Sunday, April 26th
Time: 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Pacific
Host: @JustJoan
MArc
My Words
By
Fleeting_Whisper
Hello, and welcome to the first run of my new City Scoop column, "MArc My
Words"! I'm Fleeting Whisper, and it is now my job to find out what's hot and
what's not in this crazy new feature, "Mission Architect."
Each week I'll be taking a few Mission Architect Story Arcs ("MArc" for short)
and writing up a review of each of them. I'll provide you the information you
need to decide whether the MArc is worth spending your time on, and what you
need to find it in the thousands of player-created stories.
First, a few ground rules:
1. I will not review any MArcs that have already achieved Developer's Choice or
Hall of Fame status. They already have enough going for them, and are easy to
find. My job is to help you find things that may have slipped under the radar,
or help you stay away from something that may be worse than it appears.
2. I will not review MArcs published by people I know. I'm sorry, but I don't
feel the potential for review bias (in favor of or against!) is worth it.
3. If I elect to write a review for your MArc, I'll let you know. If you wish to
prevent it from being published, want to add author comments to my review, or
wish to attach your forum handle to the review in addition to your in-game
global handle, please feel free to contact me! But remember that the Scoop has
deadlines I need to meet, so respond ASAP!
It's also worth noting that when I am playing these MArcs for review, I will be
on Unyielding/Ruthless difficulty, not Invincible/Relentless, and I'll be
playing solo more often than not as I take notes about the MArc. As a result,
AVs will be EBs, and spawn sizes will be limited to a single player.
In addition to a full review of a few published MArcs, I will also be including
my "Diamond in the Rough" segment, in which I highlight a MArc that has
remained published and unrated for some time, and yet I feel deserves
recognition.
My Rating System:
One to five stars is simply not enough to fully realize the quality (or lack
thereof) of a MArc. Because of that, I split my rating between four
characteristics, and the star rating I award the MArc in-game will be the
rounded average of the four values.
My four categories are Difficulty, Pacing (both in story and in game-play),
Storytelling (including things such as grammar and spelling if it detracts from
my ability to read your dialogue), and Replay Value.
Each category ranges from 0 (missing/terrible) to 3 (about like a radio/paper
mission) to 5 (perfect). It's also possible for a MArc to push past 5; for
example, my Difficulty 5 rating is "Challenge." Past "Challenge" is
"Frustrating," which serves as a 1 for calculating the MArc's score. Past
"Frustrating" is "Impossible," which counts as a 0. All things in moderation,
as they say.
Along with the numeric score, I'll also be including information on the mood of
the arc as well as how close to the game's canon it is.
And now, on to my first review!
MArc #1042: "Alternate Dimensions and You"
by @Seril
3 Missions
Neutral
Levels 1-54
Difficulty: Moderate (3)
Pacing: Quick (4)
Storytelling: Good (4)
Replay Value: High (4)
Mood: Comedic, Serial
Canonicity: Remote
MArc Rating: 4 stars
The contact for this arc is... a Mysterious Box. Rather than hand
waving some magical contact talking to you through the box or making pohsyb the
contact, though, the missions are a set of comic books that you discover in the
box. There are three comics, one for each mission, each telling a different
story making this MArc more a set of missions than an actual arc. The titles of
these comic books are "Adventures of the Pop Idol Superstar!", "Lethal Candy,"
and "My First Fanfiction." It's implied by the title of the MArc and the
description in the AE interface that each mission has you entering another
dimension where the contents of the comic are true, though that is never stated
during the MArc. Still, the missions were entertaining enough to overlook an
easily plugged plot hole. And just a pinhole, at that.
"Adventures
of the Pop Idol Superstar!" is a comic about the singer and super hero
Fusionette. Her most devoted fans know that her favorite color is not, in fact,
blue - it's purple. As expected, this is a "vent your frustration on
Fusionette" mission, though it's done quite well. The enemies are Fusionette's
fangirls (she's a singer in this universe, after all), and rather than taking
the obvious route of making them all Energy/Energy blasters mimicking their
idol, the group actually has variety, and their descriptions are amusing.
"Lethal Candy" details Candy Distribution, Inc. and their new Kinetic Chew
candy, which gives anyone who eats it Kinetics powers, making all the Kinetics
heroes and villains obsolete. As Syndrome says, "When everyone's super, then no
one will be." Unsurprisingly, every enemy in the mission has Kinetics as one of
their powersets. It's your job to steal their recipe and destroy their data, so
they can't make any more of the candy. Just watch out for the ambushes when
destroying the Candy Distribution, Inc. server; if you destroy it too quickly,
you may end up running in place and dealing 10% of your base damage as Siphon
Speed and Siphon Power is stacked on you.
The final comic is "My First Fanfiction." If you don't know what the term "Mary
Sue" is, I advise you go look it up. Contrary to my first thought when reading
the name of the comic way back at the start of the first mission, this is not
something serious with a Mary Sue character. No, Seril is much more talented
than that - this is a dimension with a Mary Sue that needs a good beating. To
illustrate my point, Mary Sue's "Boss Unaware" dialogue: "That's a picture of
me and States back in college. Well, before I left Earth to save the galaxy.
Those were some good times."
To aid in your quest to destroy the Sues (yes, plural - Mary Sue has two
teammates for her escapades), there is a Heat Bot (Earth Control/Thermal
Radiation) and Freeze Bot (Earth Control/Cold Domination). Heat Bot is actually
quite good at applying Thermal buffs, though he can run out of endurance
applying them and has little remaining to fight. As a Thugs/Dark Mastermind, he
would try applying his buffs to all of my pets, including Gang War when they
were out. Despite this, the little bots are handy, though not necessary, as the
Sues are merely Boss level enemies. This arc is for comedy, not difficulty.
Diamond in the Rough
MArc #8776: "The Cat's in the Cradle"
by @Ulli Lad (Ullikummis)
5 Missions
Villainous
Levels 45-54, 1-54, and 40-54
MArc Rating: 4 stars
Nemesis' soul is trapped inside a robotic cat. The world needs him free... so
that he can rule it!
Ex Libris Stepping Down
Official Announcement
Farewell! but whenever you welcome the hour
That awakens the night-song of mirth in your bower,
Then think of the friends who once welcomed it too,
And forgot our own griefs to be happy with you.
Our griefs may return, not a hope may remain
Of the few that have brighten'd our pathway of pain,
But we ne'er will forget the short vision, that threw
Its enchantment around us, while lingering with you.
Best wishes in all your future endeavors from the staff of the City Scoop!
Ex and her Sidekick Frank Black